When the Old Man’s Friend Came to Call

The Respiratory Team paid one of their routine visits to mum at the beginning of the week and were concerned enough to feed straight back to the Community Matron. Sarah put in an appearance later in the day, listened to mum’s chest and diagnosed the beginnings of pneumonia. Luckily we had antibiotics and steroids in the flat just in case of such an eventuality, but one of the inhalers had run out over the weekend, so Sarah set off to the GP’s surgery to make sure that the relevant prescriptions were issued and that mum’s doctor knew she was unwell.

Having smugly congratulated myself on producing the standby medication so promptly I was surprised and worried to find the box of Amoxicillin was empty… I made a further frantic phone call to the GP, sharing Sarah’s earlier frustration at having to go through various menus, to ensure that a script was sent direct to the pharmacist and then despatched to mum before the end of the day. Trust me to choose that day to visit without my car.

Whilst I was worrying about the missing antibiotics I decided it was time to move the furniture in the bedroom. We had been advised that the bed (with its rubber mattress) should not be alongside the radiator, so Emma, the carer, and I emulated Pickfords removal men whilst we dragged chairs and chests of drawers out of the room in order to swing the bed around. Initially we placed it facing the wrong way, where the telly would not be visible, so we had to disturb mum again, much to her annoyance. After plugging the mattress and the control pad back into the wall we found that the pad was doing nothing at all and the mattress was flat. Cue more complaints and moans from the patient. The light was on but it was completely unresponsive at 5.10 in the afternoon when Medequip had gone home for the day. The emergency number that was supposed to be on the equipment was not there and googling for it was impossible given that the flat is in a mobile phone black spot. Although I had no car I at least had my mobile WiFi so was able to get online, find a number and make the necessary call. It was all so simple once I was told how to rectify the problem, but why on earth weren’t those instructions delivered with the bed?

The next day was spent trying not to worry about mum and hoping that she would respond to her medication as the alternative was hospitalisation and we were fully aware that she would not want to go there. I know now that she is doing better, so that’s another mini crisis averted.

Sarah was also concerned that mum has generally deteriorated over the 10 days since she last saw her and that her COPD has worsened so she delivered an End of Life Pack, containing the necessary injectable medication for making mum comfortable when the time comes. She also informed me that she is making an application to the local council for continuing funding. Whether we get it will be another matter, but we are keeping everything crossed. We have been using mum’s personal savings to fund her care and the money is disappearing rapidly; it would be a relief not to have to fret about finances too.

So for now we can wave goodbye to the Old Man’s Friend and hope that the funding is approved and that mum remains stable.